Heretofore, when hand packers of fruit along pack lines or stations had completed the packing of the empty box or carton, or the last of an accumulation of empty boxes, and the packed box or boxes would be conveyed to a palletizer, manual or automatic, a delay would often occur before an empty box or accumulation of boxes would reach the idled packer, due primarily to the distance an empty box would be required to travel, i.e., from the empty box holding station to the handpacking station requesting the empty boxes, thereby resulting in decreased box filling time; inconsistent empty box distribution to filling or packing stations, or filled boxes to palletizing stations; increased hand labor, time consumed, and packing costs.
The present invention provides an accumulation buffer station immediately upstream each of the empty box accumulation stations provided for each of the handpacking stations. Each of the accumulation buffer stations holds or stores several empty boxes in readiness for instant transfer to the empty box accumulation stations upon a primary call or request from the accumulation station to a microprocessor, in the form of a signal from a normally closed photocell switch indicating the last box in the empty box accumulation station has advanced down the line thereby opening the switch. The signal instantaneously actuates a box kicker, pusher, or indexer, through the microprocessor, by means of a solenoid which kicks or pushes the empty box from the accumulation buffer station toward the empty box accumulation station for filling by the handpackers.